Woman, 45, sustains ‘significant trauma’ and has part of arm amputated, as two teens injured in second attack
Two separate shark attacks at Florida beaches wounded three swimmers, including two teenagers, prompting some popular vacation spots to temporarily close, according to authorities.
A shark bit a 45-year-old woman at about 1.20pm on Friday while she swam at Watersound beach, along the coast of Walton county, Florida, in the eastern part of the state.
Continue reading...Move comes after video released showing hip-hop mogul attacking singer Cassie Ventura in 2016
Howard University on Friday announced that it has revoked the honorary degree it gave to Sean “Diddy” Combs in 2014, discontinued a scholarship program named after the rap mogul and returned a $1m donation from him, citing the video that showed him violently attacking singer Cassie Ventura in the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel.
“Mr Combs’ behavior … is so fundamentally incompatible with Howard University’s core values and beliefs that he is deemed no longer worthy to hold the institution’s highest honor,” the Washington DC school said in a statement. “The university is unwavering in its opposition to all acts of interpersonal violence.”
Continue reading...Legislation will limit children’s exposure to computer algorithmic social media feeds and protect their privacy
New York state took novel legislative steps on Friday to limit children’s exposure to computer algorithmic social media feeds, passing two laws to protect children from addictive social media content and to protect their privacy.
The Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (Safe) for Kids Act requires social media companies to restrict addictive feeds on their platforms for users under 18 unless parental consent is granted, and prohibits companies from sending notifications regarding addictive feeds to minors from 12.00am to 6.00am.
Continue reading...Democrats call Trump ‘unfit to serve’ on the advertisement in Las Vegas, where he’s due to speak on Sunday
Democrats will target Donald Trump’s first full-scale campaign rally since his criminal trial with a billboard that brands him “a convicted white-collar crook”.
The ad, paid for by the Democratic National Committee (DNC), is the latest indication that the party is ready to become more aggressive in capitalising on last month’s guilty verdict in New York.
Continue reading...Aid group workers also taken as UN says it is trying to secure access to its personnel and clarify the situation around the detentions
Yemen’s Houthis have detained 11 Yemeni employees of UN agencies under unclear circumstances, authorities say, as the militia group faces increasing financial pressure and airstrikes from a US-led coalition.
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said 11 UN staffers had been taken.
Continue reading...El Paso, Texas, saw temperatures of 106F, with border patrol identifying ‘heatstroke and dehydration’ as cause of death
At least four people have died crossing the US-Mexico border near El Paso, Texas, amid the searing heatwave gripping the south-west.
Temperatures in El Paso peaked at 106F (41C) on Thursday, and some 34 million people – from the southern tip of Texas across Arizona and up into California and Nevada – were under heat alerts.
Continue reading...The Tony award winner says ‘Racism and bigots are real’ after being turned down by landlord in Harlem
The Tony award winner Wendell Pierce has alleged that he was denied a rental apartment in New York’s historically Black Harlem neighborhood because he is Black.
“Racism and bigots are real,” the actor posted on X this week. “There are those who will do anything to destroy life’s journey for Black folks. When you deny our personal experiences, you are as vile and despicable.”
Continue reading...William Innes, 19, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in 2023 death of Annette Pershal in San Diego
A 19-year-old who fatally shot an unhoused woman with a pellet gun in southern California was sentenced to five years and eight months in state prison on Thursday.
William Innes pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the killing last May of Annette Pershal, 68, who was living on the streets of San Diego and nicknamed “Granny Annie”. The case sparked national outrage after prosecutors reported that Innes had texted a group chat saying he was going “hobo hunting”.
Continue reading...Video shows Arizona Senate candidate repeating election-fraud claims at event with Confederate flag behind her
The Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake addressed supporters with a Confederate flag displayed behind her during a campaign event at a Trump merchandise store in Arizona last week, where she repeated false claims about election fraud.
In footage obtained by the Guardian, Lake is seen speaking into a microphone, surrounded by a group of supporters, at the Trumped Store in Show Low, Arizona. Behind her, a Confederate battle flag and a yellow “Don’t Tread On Me” flag are affixed to the wall. Both flags are available for purchase on the website of Trumped Store, which sells an array of merchandise with the former president’s name and likeness.
Continue reading...Patrol boat off Venezuelan coast shoots and sinks vessel suspected of carrying drugs as three people go overboard
A high-seas shootout pitting drug runners against the law ended with the smugglers’ boat at the bottom of the Caribbean Sea and the US Coast Guard seizing $63m worth of cocaine, authorities in Florida said on Friday.
The dramatic encounter took place on Tuesday about 25 miles (40km) north of Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, when the coast guard cutter Resolute – patrolling with the Dutch navy ship Groningen – identified a vessel in international waters suspected of carrying narcotics, according to a press release from the USCG south-east region.
Continue reading...Three US nationals on trial in Democratic Republic of Congo over events in May described as an attempted coup
More than 50 people, including three US citizens and a Belgian, have gone on trial in the Democratic Republic of Congo over what the army has described as an attempted coup.
The actions of the three Americans were “punishable by death”, Judge Freddy Ehume told the military court in the DRC capital, Kinshasa.
Continue reading...Warning comes amid visits by Israeli officials to region bordering Lebanon and speculation about an operation
The Biden administration has warned Israel that widening its conflict against the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah would risk drawing in Iran, even as Israeli officials said last week they had completed preparations for an operation if it were required.
According to an Axios report quoting two unnamed senior US officials, the administration has told Israel it does not believe “a limited war” in Lebanon or a “small regional war” is a realistic option because it would be difficult to end and be likely to spin out of control.
Continue reading...UN secretary general makes plea for nuclear states to agree on mutual pledge not to be first to use nuclear weapons
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has warned that the spread of artificial intelligence technology multiplies the threat of nuclear war, and that humanity is now “on a knife’s edge” as dangers to its existence coalesce.
Guterres’s warning is due to be shown on a recorded video to be played on Friday morning at the annual meeting of the US Arms Control Association (ACA) in Washington.
Continue reading...Ex-president determined to destroy independence of justice department if he regains control of White House
Donald Trump is planning an assault on the American justice system should he win re-election to the White House, in which he would seek to destroy the independence of the justice department and turn it into an attack machine for his Make American great again (Maga) movement.
At the heart of his plans is the desire to impose his will on the individual prosecutorial decisions taken by the Department of Justice. The move, if successful, would end half a century of accepted practice that prevents presidents from politically interfering with specific cases.
Continue reading...White House says theme of president’s speech will be democracy as he speaks from Pointe du Hoc
We’re a few minutes away from Joe Biden delivering a speech on the Normandy coastline, where the White House says the theme will be democracy – meaning the president may take more shots, veiled or unveiled, at Donald Trump and his authoritarian plans.
Biden will speak from Pointe du Hoc, a strategic promontory that was a key objective for US forces during the D-day invasion, and gained renewed attention four decades later when Ronald Reagan delivered a notable address from the point. Here’s more on that, from the Guardian’s Dan Sabbagh:
On Friday, Biden is due to speak at Pointe du Hoc, where 80 years ago 225 US Rangers scaled 35-metre sheer cliffs using rope ladders shot over the top to capture a strategically situated artillery bunker. It was perhaps the most dangerous single mission on D-day, and casualties were severe. Only 90 were still able to fight when a count was taken a couple of days later.
There is almost certainly another reason for the location of Biden’s address, given the US president has an election to fight. Forty years ago a Republican president, Ronald Reagan, spoke on the cliffs at the same battle site, and in front of an audience of military veterans he justified the struggle of the day in terms not obviously recognisable in Donald Trump’s Republican worldview.
Is he describing himself? Weak and pathetic? Come on, look, everybody knows what’s happened. We had a deal, it was much broader than this, much better, much more accepted, across the board, and he got on the phone and told the Republicans, don’t support it. It will hurt me, it will help Biden.
Continue reading...The Infowars host dropped his petition for bankruptcy protection, now opting instead for liquidation of company
Infowars host Alex Jones has asked a court to sell off his assets to help meet a $1.5bn defamation judgment against him and his companies over public comments he made claiming that the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting was faked.
In a court filing, Jones dropped his petition merely to go into bankruptcy, admitted that he has to pay the Sandy Hook families, and asked the judge to convert the bankruptcy into a Chapter 7 liquidation.
Continue reading...US president says sorry for ‘weeks of not knowing’, referring to members of Congress holding up $225m aid package
The US president, Joe Biden, has apologised publicly to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, for the months of delay in American military assistance that allowed Russia to make gains on the battlefield, and announced a further $225m (£177m) in military aid to Ukraine.
Meeting Zelenskiy in Paris on Friday, Biden told him: “You haven’t bowed down, you haven’t yielded at all, you continue to fight in a way that is … just remarkable. We are not going to walk away from you.”
Continue reading...Figures show unexpected resiliency of job market as officials try to tamp down 3.4% inflation
The US economy added 272,000 jobs in May, a sign the labor market continued strong amid high interest rates, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced on Friday.
The number of May jobs was far higher than the 190,000 economists had expected and topped April’s gains, when a revised 165,000 jobs were added to the economy. The unemployment rate rose to 4% for the first time since January 2022, up from 3.9% in April.
Continue reading...Agricultural equipment company plans to move production out of the country in move condemned by workers
US workers at John Deere plants have accused the company of acting on “greed” as America’s most famous agricultural equipment company plans to shift more production to Mexico.
The company – famous for its green tractors and leaping deer logo – has announced layoffs of several hundred workers over the last several months with more layoffs planned for later this year.
Continue reading...Robyn Denholm says electric carmaker’s CEO could spend his time elsewhere if biggest pay deal in US corporate history isn’t approved
The chair of Tesla has raised the prospect of Elon Musk stepping back from the electric carmaker if shareholders do not back the chief executive’s $56bn (£44bn) pay package, saying there are “other places” the entrepreneur could spend his time.
Robyn Denholm added in a letter to investors that next week’s vote on the biggest remuneration deal in US corporate history was “obviously not about the money” because Musk would remain one of the richest people on the planet regardless of the outcome.
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